Printing device with zero-position selecting mechanism



' y 1969 BAROZZI GIAN PIERO ET AL 3,453,124

Filed June a, 1967 PRINTING DEVICE WITH ZERO--POSITION SELECTINGMECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR BARoZzr 6m PI Y0 Honescm warm/m0 BYHall an/c UM ATTORNEY J y 9, 1969 BAROZZI GIAN PIERO ET 3,453,124

PRINTING DEVICE WITH ZEROPOSITION SELECTING MECHANISM Filed June a. 1967v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG 4 BAROZZI mrv PIERo I mvsm-oa HORESCH! emf/4m BYHaze, Pramn/ UM 5M4,

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,458,124 PRINTING DEVICE WITHZERO-POSITION SELECTKNG MECHANISM Barozzi Gian Piero and HoreschiGiancarlo, Tokyo, Japan, assignors to Citizen Watch (10., Ltd.,Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Filed June 8, 1967, Ser. No. 644,672 Claimspriority, application Italy, Aug. 1, 1966, 17,787/ 66 Int. Cl. G06m 1/28US. Cl. 235-58 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A printing system forcalculators and printing apparatus, having a series of arcuateoscillatory sectors each carrying on the arcuate surface thereof typesof numerals from 0 to 9, racks operatively connected to the respectivesectors in such a manner as to cause rotation of said sectors andsprings connected to the associating sectors for urging said sectors tomove in a stamping direction, whereby said sectors are imparted with thecombination of rotational motion and linear advancing motion to stamp anassigned number on a paper on a paper holding roller.

The present invention relates to a printing system for calculators andother printing apparatus, which comprises arcuate sectors each slidablymounted on a guide by way of a pin and adapted to be rotated about saidpin by the shaft of the calculator, so that numerals embossed on thesectors are stamped when said sectors have completed their movementconsisting of the combination of rotational movement and linearmovement.

As is well known, a calculator is provided with means to select racks,sectors or levers which are to be moved for stamping numerals other thanzero and to be returned to their original positions, and to select thoseracks, sectors or levers which stamp zero at positions on the left-handside of the first numeral other than zero of an assigned number on apaper holding roller.

Besides said means, the calculator must be provided with other means toimpart a necessary movement to the racks, sectors or levers so as toscribe a number on a paper with types attached to scribing elements.

Each of the means described above principally has two drawbacks.

The first drawback is that the component parts are costly and complicatein structure and there must be pro vided all parts of said mechanism andadditional parts for guiding and moving said mechanism, which add to thecomplicacy of the calculator proper.

The second drawback is that an extremely long time is required for themechanism and its additional parts to be set in motion, to start andcarry out each step of the operation and to return to their originalpositions.

The apparatus of the present invention has eliminated the aforementioneddrawbacks, in which the number of compact is reduced and theconfiguration and arrangement of the same are simplified, whereby thecost of the apparatus is lowered drastically and in which the periodrequired for printing operation is reduced to substantially the sameperiod as that required for the arrangement of a numeral larger thanzero, by the combination of only two movements consisting of upward andforward movements, owing to the unique structures and arrangement of thecomponent parts.

The printing apparatus according to the present invention includes a keyboard and an ordinary numeral setting device such as numeral settingcarriage adapted to slide on a lateral axis, and is further providedwith a slidable horizontal brake device which is applicable to acalculator of the type which consists of a rack or the like meansadapted to project from the carriage corresponding to the result ofnumeral setting and to hold the elevating elements in engagementtherewith stationary in the positions corresponding to the set numeral.Besides the elements described above, the inventive apparatus may beprovided with means to release a movable rack from a lowered positioncorresponding to zero and to elevate said rack by the action of a springor the like so as to bring it in alignment with said brake device forthe numeral carriage as usual, thereby indicating the motion of thestamping means.

The printing system of the present invention has a plurality ofoscillatory sectors, each carrying on the outer arcuate surface types of0 to 9. Each sector is rotatably mounted on a pin which is slidablewithin a horizontal comb-shaped guide fixed to the side wall of themachine, and is movable towards a paper holding roller of the machineunder the action of a spring.

A bar is provided laterally and this bar, under the normal condition,holds all of the stamping sectors in a position away from the paperholding roller against the bias of said spring but, when the ordinarydevices of the machine start operation for stamping, it moves away fromthe. sectors permitting said sectors to move in the same direciton.

Each of. the stamping sectors is connected to the corresponding rack byway of a pin which is slidably received in a horizontal guide formed onthe rack and rotate about a pin on said stamping sector along with theupward movement of said rod, whereby a type corresponding to a setnumeral is brought to a position in front of the paper holding roller ona line connecting the centers of rotation of said roller and saidsector.

Simultaneously with the rotation of said sectors caused by said rods, abar holding said sectors is moved by known means in the machine andthereby each sector is placed under the action of the spring so as to bemovable towards the paper holding roller. The forward movement androtation of the sectors are combined, that is to say that each sectormoves forwardly towards the paper holding roller while being rotatedabout its center by the action of the rack as described above, and anumeral assigned thereto is stamped on the paper on said paper holdingroller. Thus, it will be seen that selection of a numeral and stampingof the same are accomplished within the same period of time.

The system of this invention includes a device by means of which eachsector is held in and/or released from its stationary position so as toprevent zero from being stamped on the left-hand side of the firstnumeral of a number greater than zero and to stamp zero which appears onthe right-hand side of said numeral.

For this purpose, each of the sectors is provided with two projections,one of which is directed towards the right-side adjacent sector and theother of which is directed towards the left-side adjacent sector. Theright-hand projection holds the right-side adjacent sector by engagementwith the left-hand projection, and the left-hand projection of theleftmost sector is held by a fixed part of the machine.

Due to the arrangement described, the leftmost sector is held by saidfixed part and holds the right-side adjacent sector. Thus, all sectorsare connected to the fixed part of the machine in sequence.

The level of the projections is lowered when the associating sector isshifted from 0 position to 1 position or is shifted into a positioncorresponding to a numeral other than zero. Therefore, when numeral 1 isset, the holding projection is disengaged from the adjacent projection,whereby the sector is released from the adjacent sector and movableforwardly for stamping.

Accordingly, all sectors on the right-hand side of the one which hasbeen released by the mechanism described above are movable forwardly forstamping, even if any of them are in the position.

It will be understood, therefore, that the sectors in the inventivesystem are capable of accomplishing the numeral selecting and stampingmotions simultaneously without requiring any other device and also havethe function of holding or releasing the adjacent sectors.

These and other features of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description when taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawing in which the scribing system of the presentinvention is illustrated as applied to a calculator of a known type, andin which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the inventive system in a stationaryposition;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation, similar to FIG. 1, of inventive system inthe stamping position;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the inventive system in a stationary position,in which the sectors in the stamping position are indicated by thedotted lines; and

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3 ofthe inventive system in the stamping position.

In FIG. 1, there is shown schematically the inventive system, as appliedto a calculator, in a stationary position. The computer is shown only byits supporting side well 1-1a, all other portions unrelated to thepresent invention being omitted.

The calculator, as is known, comprises a paper holding roller 2 and anumeral setting carriage 4 which is slidable on a lateral shaft 3 andprovided with movable stoppers 5 attached to a portion not shown whichis connected to a numeral setting head. In the present invention, thecalculator is provided with a plurality of devices which are identicalwith each other, the number of said devices being determined by thecapacity of the computer.

In the figure, only one device relating to the numerals of a singlecolumn is shown for the simplicity of explanation, all of the otherdevices being identical therewith.

The device in the inventive system has a rack 6 which is adapted to makea linear motion and which is constantly urged upwardly by the bias of aspring 7 provided between a fixed bar 8 fixed to the side wall of themachine and a hook 6n. on said rack. The bar 8 also serves as a guide toguide a vertical linear movement of the rack 6.

A cross bar 9 is provided by means of which all of a series of racks 6in the machine are held in a depressed position, with the lugs 6bthereof in engagement with said bar. The bar 9 is adapted to be movedupwardly in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 1 by the action ofknown means in the machine, to thereby release all of said racks 6 fromthe depressed position. Cross bar 9 moves in a slot 24 formed in asupporting side wall 1-1a in parallel relation to the vertical rack 6and is connected to one end of a lever 25. The other end of the lever 25is connected to a swinging lever 26 by a pin 27. Swinging lever 26 isswingable about a shaft 28 fixed to the supporting side wall 1-1a andcarries a roller 29 at the end thereof which is engaged by an operatingcam 30. The cam 30 is substantially oval in shape so as to cause anupward and a downward movement of cross bar 9. Each of the racks 6carries an arcuate sector generally indicated at 10, which carries alongits arcuate peripheral surface 11 types from O to 9 as indicated at 12.The arcuate portion 11 of the sector has at its upper portion anintegral lever 13 carrying a pin 14 and a lobe 13a which engages one endof a tension spring 16 the other end of which is connected to the fixedbar 8. The pin 14 is rotatable and is slidable in a pair of horizontalguides 15 formed by a bar (see FIG. 3) which has comb-shaped slitsformed therein in which the arm 13 of each sector is received. A crossbar 19 is extending along the arcuate edges 14a of the levers 13 of allsectors in contact therewith, said arcuate edges being formedconcentrically with the pin 14. The cross bar 19 is adapted to be movedforwardly in the direction of the arrow B in FIG. 1 by the ordinarydevice in the machine at a suitable time as will be described later.Cross bar 19 slides in the guide bar 15 and is connected to a lever 31.Lever 31 is connected by a pin 33 to a lever 32 which swings about fixedshaft 28 and carries a roller 34 which is engaged by a cam 35. Cam 35 isprovided with an indent 35a for operating the cross bar 19instantaneously. The sector 11 also carries a pin 17 which is slidablyreceived in a forked guide 18 integrally formed with the rack 6 andhaving sliding surfaces in parallel to those of the guide 15.

Since all sectors 10 are urged towards the paper holding roller 2 underthe tension of the spring 16, it will be obvious that all sectors 10move towards the paper holding roller 2 and effect stamping on the paperon said paper holding roller when the cross bar 19 is displaced in thedirection of the arrow B by the rotating mechanism of the machine, andare returned to their original positions shown in FIG. 1 when said crossbar 19 is displaced in a reverse direction upon completion of stamping.

Such operation of the inventive system will be described in furtherdetail hereunder.

When the calculator is in a stationary position, the inventive system isin the position shown in FIG. 1. Namely, the bar 9 is in the loweredposition holding all racks 6 in their lowered positions against the biasof the respective springs 7. The sector 10 engaging the rack 6,therefore, is held, due to the engagement between the pin 17 and theguide 18, at such an angle at which the first one of the types 12representing 0 is located just in front of the paper holding roller 2.The pin 14 and accordingly the sector 10 is also held in its positionrelative to the paper holding roller against the bias of the spring 16by the cross bar 19 which is bearing against the arcuate edge 14a ofsaid pin.

When a numeral other than 0, e.g. numeral 5, is set on the key board notshown, the stopper 5 of the numeral setting carriage 4 is projected asshown in FIG. 2. When the machine is set in motion under this state, thecross bar 9 is moved in the direction of the arrow A to a positionindicated by 9' in FIG. 2, releasing the lug 6b of the rack 6 from thelocked position. The rack 6, therefore, is pulled upwardly under thebias of the spring 7 until the lug 6b comes in abutment against thestopper 5. As a result, the rack 6 causes the sector 11 to rotate aboutthe pin 14 due to the engagement of the pin 17 with the forked guide 18,and thus a type 12 representing numeral 5 is brought to a positionsquarely facing the paper holding roller 2.

During rotation of the sector 11 in the manner described, the bar 19moves in the direction of the arrow B in FIG. 1 with a slight time delayto the position indicated by 19' in FIG. 2. In other words, the sector11 commences its rotational movement about the pin 14, with the arcuateedge 14a in sliding contact with the bar 19, when the cross bar 19 isstill held in its closed position, and then the sector 10 movesforwardly as a whole, with the arcuate edge 14a following the surface ofthe bar 19 as said bar is displaced slowly in the direction of the arrowB, to an intermediate position indicated by the broken lines in FIG. 2,as a result of the combination of the rotational movement caused by saidrack 6 and the forward movement caused by the spring 16.

Such a combined motion continues until the lug 6b comes in contact withthe stopper 5 and, upon contact of the lug with the stopper, the upwardmovement of the rack 6 and the rotational movement of the sector 10 areterminated. At the same time, the cross bar 19 is displaced to theposition indicated by 19' moving away from the arcuate edge 14a.Thesector 10, therefore, is moved forwardly by the bias of the spring 16to the position indicated by 11' and 12' in FIG. 2, bringing a typecorresponding to the assigned numeral, that is 5 in this case, intocontact with the paper holding roller on the line XX passing the centersof the roller 2 and the pin 14. In the manner described, the type 12corresponding to the numeral 5 stamps the numeral 5 on the paper on thepaper holding roller at a speed afl'orded by the spring 16. Thisstamping operation takes place immediately after the rack 6 is stopperby the stopper 5.

The sector 10 is released from all external forces when the cross bar 19is displaced in the direction of the arrow B, so that it is movabletowards the paper holding roller 2 under the tension of the spring 16.However, such a motion should be taken place only on the sectors on theright-hand side of the one representing the first numeral other thanzero of the number desired to be stamped, including those representingzero, if there is any, and those on the left-hand side of said one mustbe held stationary. In order to make this possible, in the presentinvention, each sector 10 is provided at its upper portion with twoprojections 20 and 21 as best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. As is seen, theprojection 20 is extending towards the right-side adjacent sector, whilethe projection 21 is extending towards the left-side adjacent sector.Since the projection 20 on each sector is so arranged as to engage theprojection 21 on the right-side adjacent sector, the right-side adjacentsector cannot move forward unless the left-side adjacent sector moves.The projection 21 on the leftmost sector is held immovably by a fixedprojection 22 which is secured to the machine frame by means of, e.g.screws 23. It will thus be obvious that, according to the arrangementdescribed above of the present invention, each sector is retained by therightside adjacent sector while retaining the left-side adjacent sector.

However, in the present invention, since the projection 20 of a sector11, which has been shifted from 0 to l, is lowered, the projection 21 ofa sector, which is assigned with a numeral larger than zero, is releasedfrom the projection 20 of the left-side adjacent sector and releases allsectors on the right-hand side for stamping. From FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, itwill be seen that the position of the apparatus shown thereincorresponds to the case of stamping the numeral 5000.

As stated previously, the fourth sector from the right has the numeral 5on the stamping line XX, while the three sectors on the right-hand sidehave the numeral 0 on said stamping lines respectively and are releasedfor forward movement. As the bar 19 is displaced, the four sectors thusreleased stamp the numerals respectively assigned thereto on the paperon the roller 2.

The configuration and construction described and illustrated herein ofthe printing system according to the present invention may be modifiedfor comformance with the characters of a calculator to which it is to beapplied and as required, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. A printing system comprising a plurality of vertical racks, alaterally extending shaft, a number setting carriage slidably mounted onsaid shaft, said number setting carriage having movable stopper meansthereon, each of said vertical racks including a lug for engaging anassociated movable stopper means, a plurality of arcute oscillatorysectors each having number types thereon, each of said vertical rackshaving guide means thereon, each sector having guide means thereoncooperating with guide means of the associated vertical rack to guidemovement of the sector, additional guide means for guiding movement ofsaid sectors, each of said sectors being provided with a projectionfacing the right-side adjacent sector and a projection facing theleft-side adjacent sector, the right-hand projection of each sectorbeing in engagement with the left-hand projection of the right-sideadjacent sector whereby said right-side sector is retained in position,and a fixed projection engaging the left-most sector for retaining it inplace.

2. A printing system as defined in claim 1 including spring meansoperatively associated with each of said sectors for pulling the sectorsin a printing operation, a cross bar for returning the sectors to theiroriginal stationary positions after a printing operation, said cross barbeing guided by said additional guide means, and means for operatingsaid cross bar.

3. A printing system as defined in claim 1 wherein said first-mentionedguide means comprises a pin secured to each sector and a forked guidefixed to each vertical rod, each of said pins being slidably positionedwithin one of said forked guides.

4. A printing system as defined in claim 1 wherein said additional guidemeans comprises a bar defining a pair of horizontal guide portionshaving slits formed therein for receiving parts of said sectors, each ofsaid sectors including a pin rotatably and slidably positioned betweensaid horizontal guide portions.

5. A printing system as defined in claim 1 including periodic drivemeans operatively connected with said cross bar so that all of saidsectors may be returned to their stationary position at one time.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,533,119 4/1925 Lasker 235-582,100,213 11/1937 Garbell 101-93 2,832,283 4/1958 Westinger et a1.101-93 3,142,441 7/1964 Edwards 235-60 3,221,644 12/1965 Gelling 101-933,232,223 2/1966 Thevis 101-94 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary ExaminerSTANLEY A. WAL, Assistant Examiner

